Monitoring school performance has become an overriding concern in American political and educational circles, and some of that scrutiny is being directed at the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES). However, there is concern that pressure to prove the effectiveness of Essential Schools may overshadow efforts to actually improve education. Taking…

In 1993, California became the second state to permit the creation of charter schools--innovative public schools operated by groups of parents, teachers, and community members under a contract or charter with a local school board. This paper provides an initial examination of the state's first charter schools based on research on organizational…

This paper presents findings of a study that used conventional modeling strategies (student- and school-level) and a new multilevel modeling strategy, Hierarchical Linear Modeling, to investigate school effects on student-achievement outcomes for data collected as part of Phase 2 of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study. The purpose was to…

This paper describes how staff development contributed to the effectiveness of four elementary schools along the south-Texas border. It attempts to determine the use of the strategies and techniques developed during staff development, the types of assistance teachers received to enable them to apply new techniques, and the differences teachers…

The purpose of the study was to describe two outlier schools, portraying their commonalities and differences and utilizing the metaphors of chaos theory in understanding the descriptions and patterns of the two schools. Rather than focusing on individual parts of a school, the study looks at each school as a dynamic system in which individual…

Making schools more productive is an overriding concern among education stakeholders. Strategies for making schools more productive are offered in this report. The articles discuss ways in which schools can boost student achievement, improve professional community among staff, and spark creative use of resources when money is scarce. The opening…

Before implementing its Outcome Based Education process, Pasco (Washington) progressed through three readiness stages paralleling the steps for good time management. Following a teacher strike, stage I involved taking care of essentials, such as rebuilding the relationship with teachers, cleaning up the grounds, and rewriting the district policy…

The usefulness of the symbolic dimension for understanding educational administration is described in this paper, which discusses how the interpretivist rather than functional perspective is a more fruitful way of looking symbolically at organizations. The symbolic aspects of school culture, particularly its types of discourse, story, and script,…

Issues in economies of scale and optimal school size are discussed in this paper, which seeks to explain the curvilinear nature of the educational cost curve as a function of "transaction costs" and to establish "optimal size" as a relative concept. Based on the argument that educational consolidation has facilitated diseconomies of scale, the…

School improvement and self-evaluation efforts in Negari Brunei Darussalam are highlighted in this paper, which focuses on those efforts undertaken since the Ministry of Education's 1990 plan to review the administration of national schools. A questionnaire administered to all primary and secondary schools and colleges elicited information about…

Findings from a study that examined the relationship between two educational movements--effective schools and nongradedness--are presented in this paper. Methodology involved: (1) a research review of studies conducted from January 1968 to June 1991 that compared graded and nongraded student performance using standardized objective measures; and…

Findings of two studies on the relationship between principal and school effectiveness are presented in this paper. The first part describes a study that examined the perceptions of three constituent groups concerning school effectiveness. Questionnaires were distributed in 1988 to 132 junior primary and primary school principals and 305 parents…

An overview of national and international research on school effectiveness is provided in this paper. Following an introduction, the first section examines some national studies, with a focus on the differences in empirical evidence for effective school factors. These studies are similar in that they are outcome-oriented, seek factors of school…

The Quality Assurance Directorate of the New South Wales (Australia) Department of School Education is developing a series of Best Practices descriptor statements to help define discussions on school development. A wide range of performance indicators are being discussed among educators worldwide. Reporting of performance indicators needs to be…

Like many cities, Indianapolis (Indiana) is facing growing dissatisfaction over its public schools. The Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) system has seen over the past decade decreasing student achievement and increasing problems over student readiness to learn, basic skills, and violence. IPS has responded with a new direction, increased parent…